More from WebMD

Dec. 15, 2009 - America is unprepared for a wide range of disasters, a
public health group warns.

The warning repeats six earlier calls to action from the nonprofit,
nonpartisan Trust for America's Health (TFAH) and from the Robert Wood Johnson
Foundation, which advocate for stronger U.S. public health policies.

This year's seventh annual "Ready or Not?" report evaluates each state in
the U.S. Many states are found lacking. Nearly all have gaps in their ability
to respond to various public health emergencies, ranging from pandemics to
natural disasters to nuclear terror.

"Decades of chronic underfunding means many core systems are not at the
ready," TFAH deputy director Richard Hamburg said at a news conference. "The
nation has a history of responding to the emergency of the moment. This
Band-Aid approach as to change."

Irwin Redlener, MD, director of the National Center for Disaster
Preparedness at New York's Columbia University, said the recession has eroded
U.S. public health infrastructure, leaving the nation vulnerable to a wide
range of potential threats.

"Budget cuts that have been ubiquitous throughout the country have led to
layoffs of 15,000 public health workers -- and half of state health departments
say they expect to lose more staff through layoffs or attrition going forward,"
Redlener said at the news conference. "With these kinds of cuts in the public
health workforce, it means we will have even more struggles and problems
meeting our preparedness goals."

TFAH's 96-page report calls for increased federal funding to bring the
nation back up to 2005 levels of preparedness -- and then for continued,
reliable federal funding to continue to build disaster preparedness in every
state.

Some states are doing better than others. TFAH rated all 50 states and the
District of Columbia on 10 preparedness indicators, ranging from hospital
preparedness to food safety to public health budgets. The scores:

9 out of 10: Arkansas, Delaware, New York, North Carolina, North Dakota,
Oklahoma, Texas, Vermont

How much will it cost to bring the nation up to standard? Redlener said
estimates from the University of Pittsburgh Center for Biosecurity and the
American Hospital Association call for an initial investment of up to $15
billion plus an ongoing $1 billion a year to prepare U.S. hospitals for a
disaster.

In 2005, Redlener said, the U.S. put $500 million into hospital
preparedness, with an annual federal budget near $400 million.

"We are talking about magnitudes of difference between what is needed and
what is provided," Redlener said. "We can't even come close to saying hospitals
are going to be prepared for a major pandemic or major terrorism or whatever in
the near future. It really is a big problem."

The TFAH report makes several recommendations:

Ensure stable and sufficient federal funding to support core activities and
emergency planning.